NEWS AND NOTES by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 20, 1896

NEWS AND NOTES

By Editor

FOREIGN.

—Advices from Brisbane, Australia, state that forty lives were lost on the 13th inst. by the capsizing of a ferry boat on Brisbane River.

—A despatch from Peking says that Li Hung Chang and Shas Yu Lien have been appointed delegates to represent the emperor of China at the coronation of Nicholas II. of Russia at Moscow.

—A fire in Guayaquil, Ecuador, February 12, caused $4,000,000 damages. Nearly one hundred and fifty buildings were burned, among them many fine public buildings, and President Alfaro was obliged to take refuge from the flames on a steamship in the harbor.

—A report has been received that Dr. Nansen, the Arctic explorer, has discovered the North Pole, and is now returning. The news has caused considerable talk, but is variously affirmed and denied. If it proves true, Andre's balloon trip will command only secondary interest.

—A report has found its way from Madagascar that an uprising of the Hovas has recently occurred against the French, and that several thousand natives were killed. It is no light affair, it seems, to hold a nation in subjection, even after it has been whipped in the fight.

—The government officials of Montreal have seized a large illicit whisky still that has been operated by the Trappist monks of the monastery of Oka. Since the seizure, the monks have approached the Inland Revenue Office with offers to pay the fines, but have been referred to the Ottawa Government.

—The U. S. cruiser Olympia has been showing off before the Japanese. In a recent run from Yokohama to Kobe, the vessel, running before a storm, made twenty-one knots an hour for several hours. It is currently reported that the trip was made to offset a recent run by a British war vessel in Japanese waters, when something like nineteen knots were made. Japan is preparing to place an order for war ships, and these exhibitions may tell one way or the other in the placing of the order.

—Perhaps the most distinct item of news this week concerning affairs in Turkey is the defeat of Turkish troops at Zeitoun, with a loss of several thousand men. The usual reports of outrages continue to come by the way of private letters from Armenians and foreign missionaries to friends in this country. The latest move in this country is the petition of the sixty-two bishops of the Episcopal Church to President Cleveland, as well as to the archbishop of Canterbury, and to the czar, president of France, and the emperors of Germany and Austria, to take some forcible action in reference to the massacres of Christians in Armenia.

—It is said that the king of Korea has issued a proclamation, and himself set the example, that all his subjects must henceforth cut off their queues, and dress their hair as do western nations. As a result, many ministers have resigned, and retired to the country, where consternation reigns, and opposition is manifested. We can not blame the people for wishing to evade such foolish and unjust laws. The people have a natural right to dress as they please. As well might the king pass a law requiring his subjects to receive a mark in their foreheads or right hands, to cease the use of rikshas on Tuesdays, or prohibit all work on the day dedicated to the sun. But then similar actions have been taken by “Christian” nations.

—The principal item of interest in England at present is the relations of that government with the Transvaal. A week ago it was announced that President Krueger would visit England, and the latest report is that he will do so. But this move was at one time in doubt, as exceptions were taken by that gentleman to the publication in England of Mr. Chamberlain's proposals to the South African Republic before they were submitted to him. The investigation of Jameson's raid, with the attendant circumstances, has not yet taken place, but it is hinted strongly that the whole move was instigated by financiers, some say outside and some inside the Chartered South African Company, of which Cecil Rhodes was head. Rhodes, however, is out of power, has made a visit to England and returned. All magisterial, military, and constabulary power has also been removed from his company. Mr. Chamberlain's proposals to the Transvaal embody reforms in that government, looking to a betterment of the condition of the Uitlanders. From statements made by President Krueger, some action of this kind may be looked for, although British interference, if it assumes that form, is bitterly resented, the South African Republic refusing absolutely to be regarded as a dependency of England. It is also stated that President Krueger stipulated as one condition of his visit that the proceedings of the convention of 1884 be reopened for discussion. The president of the South African Republic is reputed to be a most astute diplomat, and his visit to England, if it takes place, will doubtless be of interest to the world, backed up as he seems to be by Germany.

—Again a disquieting rumor comes from the Orient, with Korea as the usual central bone of contention. A recent despatch reports the landing of several hundred Russian troops at Chemulpo, ostensibly to protect the Russian legation. This move is induced by reported riots in Korea, the latest of which is said to have resulted in the death of the premier and seven officials at Seoul. It is well known that Russia is closely watching the movements of Japan, and it is generally believed that sooner or later she will occupy Korea, at least to the extent of providing herself a seaport in that peninsula. While Russia promised China in 1886, through the direction of the latter by England, not to occupy Korea, yet ten years have changed relations considerably, and in view of Russia's relations with China during and since the late war, a move by that power to establish herself in the Far East in open waters may be looked for at any time.

—The case of Waller, U. S. Ex-Consul to Madagascar, now in jail in France, is nearing its settlement, as far as the United States Government is concerned. The papers of the trial before the French military court, where Waller was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment, have been examined by the Secretary of State and President, and Mr. Olney has reported that there is abundant evidence of Waller's guilt. Nevertheless, because of the demand of the United States for his release, the French Government has offered to pardon him and release him from further imprisonment, providing that the affair be terminated as between France and this country. Ambassador Eustis has been instructed to accept the offer. Waller, however, may institute personal proceedings against the French courts if he chooses. In the meantime the United States Government has paid out over thirteen hundred dollars in providing for Waller's family, who were in destitute circumstances.

—The wonderful discovery of Professor Roentgen, by means of which objects are photographed through opaque bodies, and which has been so widely heralded to the world in the past few weeks, is now followed by still more startling revelations in the same line. Professor Salvioni, an Italian, is now perfecting a device whereby the human eye is enabled to see through these bodies without the aid of the camera. Then comes Dr. Simon, of New York, who has succeeded in photographing his own brain. This will mean that the lungs, liver, heart, stomach, and other organs will be photographed, and diseases and ills that attack them located. Professor Roentgen had succeeded only in representing coins through softer substances, or the bones through the flesh. Already a practical test of the method has been made by Chicago experimenters, who successfully located and removed a shot from a person's hand. These later developments are a decided advance, and the limit is probably by no means reached.

—The Cuban war seems to be assuming more definite proportions, both the Spanish and Cuban forces being better organized, and plans better laid. Since the arrival of General Weyler the press censorship has been largely removed, correspondents being allowed to send their despatches upon furnishing a copy of same to the war office. However, criticisms of the Spanish rule, and reports intended to aid the Cuban cause, are not permitted. The city of Managua has been occupied by the Cubans, and a letter received at Cuban headquarters in New York states that in an attack on Bayamo the insurgents used dynamite, killing over three hundred Spanish troops. The letter also announces the arrival of a steamer with 1,000 rifles, 1,000,000 cartridges, 500 machetes, and two small field pieces, besides smaller arms. Another filibustering steamer is reported to have sailed from Wilmington, N. C. General Weyler's plan is to thoroughly organize the troops before making any decided moves, and he has also called for native volunteers. Several thousand have responded, but in the battle at Managua, referred to above, the volunteer garrison is said to have joined the insurgents as soon as the latter made their way into the city.

DOMESTIC.

—During recent heavy storms on the New England coast, three large schooners went to pieces, causing the drowning of eleven sailors.

—Edward F. Uhl, of Michigan, has been appointed to the position of U. S. Ambassador at Berlin, the place recently made vacant by the death of Theodore Runyon.

—The Senate Free Coinage bill, advocating the free coinage of silver at 16 to 1, passed by that body as a substitute to the House Bond bill, has met its death blow in the House of Representatives, the vote being 190 to 80 against the measure. Had it even passed this body, it was certain to have been vetoed by the President, whose predilections in favor of gold are well known.

—An ice dam which formed above Niagara Falls on February 13, caused the river for the first time in half a century to run nearly dry on the American side.

—The report from Maine shows a depressing condition of certain kinds of business, on account of the lack of snow. There are 50,000,000 feet of logs in the Penobscot lumbering district which can not be moved because of the absence of snow, and fully as much more in other districts, as well as 50,000 cords of hemlock bark for tanning, and all the lumber and milling industries are suffering severely. The unique experience of putting wheels on sleds has been tried in some districts. Every previous winter when ice has been cut it has been hauled to the houses on sleds. This year there is no snow, and the ice has been cut and wheeled away. The farmers say now that the absence of the warm blanket of snow means short crops next year.

—In October, 1894, a train robbery occurred near Sacramento, this state, and the robbers secured $50,000 from Wells, Fargo & Co.'s safe. At a subsequent robbery, one bandit was killed, and later his comrade, the notorious Jack Brady, was captured. He told where the money secured on the former occasion was buried, and officers found $18,000. It now develops that the money was found by a tramp at the time of the robbery, who got away with $32,000, and has since that time lived and spent money like a millionaire, most of the time in San Francisco. His name was Harms. But he has been found out and confesses the whole matter. As a result, the Express Company will probably be able to secure about $8,000 of the amount taken by the tramp.

—The Washington correspondent of the Christian Advocate says: “It will surprise many readers of the Christian Advocate to learn that, according to the present law in the District of Columbia, all occupations may be pursued on Sundays as during the week, except those of barbers and barkeepers.” Attention is then called to a bill now before Congress asking for a general Sunday law for that district, and urging those who love righteousness to help the matter on through their representatives. The cause for surprise should rather be why barbers and barkeepers should be so prohibited on Sunday, and, too, why a law is sought to prevent every one else from following his regular vocation upon that day if he so desires. Congress is forbidden by the Constitution to make any laws concerning religion, and it is certain that these laws now sought for through Congress are nothing else but religious laws, in favor of a religious day. It would be well for those who love righteousness to consider well whether aid in such direction will be in accord with the Golden Rule, or if it will not rather be subversive of liberty of conscience; for such laws are sure first to work wrong to some who can not conscientiously observe the Sunday, and, second, may react upon the heads of their promulgators, should such ever experience a change of belief, and desire to observe another day, the seventh day of the Lord's commandment, the Mohammedan sixth day, or any other day of the week. It will be well to think, we say, before helping along any such move.